Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Command finally shows up !

Greetings troops !

I finally got around to painting some after the stomach bug marched through out the house.

A 2nd coat finally got to the command squads. The colors seemed to go on fairly well. Although there seems to be a tad touch up in some areas the figures look good from a distance for 15mm. I used Vallejo Khaki 988 for the main field jackets, US Field Drab 873 for the trousers, Green Grey 886 for webbing/gators and Red Leather 818 for the boots.





After looking through my paints I realized that I didn't have some colors I needed. I was able to find Games Workshop Dwarf Flesh 61-21 for the initial skin tones and Scorched Brown 61-12 for the rifles in my paint stores.

I decided to "complete" the CO figures first for a test run on how I wanted my figures. I based all figures with black. Then I covered the figures in the Khaki and US Field Drab in the respective areas. I only left the boots, rifles/weapons and skin areas black. In doing this all details were covered by the "major" colors. I then went back and placed detail colors. Please let me know what you think ... it will help determine in some degree how I am going to approach the other figures.

My camera was acting up so please forgive the photos if they are not the best. I need to figure out the best setting so my work can be critiqued.




This weekend is the Battle Hymn at RIR in Richmond VA. I plan to take troops into action in two games for Flames of War. El Alamein ran by Steve Maclauchlan (a fellow blog reader) and an EW France 1940 scenario ran by Ron Bingham. These will be my first trial by fire games. I look forward to them and hope to have some great AARs and experience to build on.

Enjoy the pics, let me know what you think I could improve on ...

Be safe

Joe

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Still here, slightly hidden ...


Hello Soldiers !

I am still here. The house was assaulted by the stomach bug and its put a halt to the painting recently. My family is in town and a couple of them got it and had to recover. Hopefully I can get to some painting today or in the next couple of days. I will see and try to get them up this evening.

Battle Hymn 09 here in Richmond is around the corner. Hopefully I can get into one of the Flames of War battles and participate as an XO status if you will. I would love to get a battle report up on the site this month and with the Battle Hymn coming at the end of the month it is surely possible.

Keep the comments coming. I love talking the hobby and history in general. Thanks to all the followers and readers. Please feel free to stop by anytime and share comments.

Till the next round of photos (soon I am hoping), be safe and keep rolling those dice

Joe

PS - Congrates to Rob and Jessica, owners of Waterloo minis whom are proud parents of a baby girl Annastasia Elizabeth born this week ! Congrates once again !

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Look Sarge, I see colors !





Sorry for the long delay in updates. The in-laws were in town so painting was at a stand still. These pictures are of the 1st coat of paint on my command squads. So far so good. I think I may run a couple of them with some diluted ink to help bring out the details.

I am home with the dang stomach bug flu that is going around. It hit me like a truck at the fire station the other night and I had to go home. So .... with that in mind I am not in the blogging mood but felt I at least wanted to get these pics up of my readers.

Any suggestions ? I like the Popsicle sticks since it helps make it easier to handle the figures while painting. I haven't decided it is easier to hit the large areas with the primary and then go back to hit the details OR hit the large areas trying not to hit the details, thus hitting them later with the correct paint. Any takes on that ?

Well ..... short but sweet. Take care & be safe

Joe

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Command forming ...





I got some time today while taking a break from getting the house straight for out of town guest. My in-laws are in town this week so I won't have much time to work on hobbies till this Sunday. So with that in mind I took a break and got my command squads ready for a quick priming.

The attached photos are of my Company HQ and his XO, along with Able platoon's Lt and Baker platoon's Lt. The weapons platoon Lt was not completed for this brief update.

I thought I would try to see how the Popsicle stick would do for priming. This is my first attempt in painting figures in the 15mm range. I wanted to test to see if it would be easier to get a paint job starting this way instead of mounting on the base and priming. I am picky about my paint job and feel if I shell out the cash for figures I want them to look as good as my talents allow.

Well .... it was short and a quick glimpse into my thought process for my painting of the troops.

Please feel free to leave any comments or helpful hints.

Be safe .... keep em pinned, roll dice like crazy

Joe

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Status Report .... Change that ....


Things have been hectic at HQ lately ..... and I must apologize for the lack of updates.

One thing I was waiting for to assist my force building was a flea market event at my local hobby store, Waterloo Minis. If you haven't heard of the store or are curious check it out www.waterloominis.com. It was a great day, meet some great people and got some great deals. I must thank Rob & Jessica for the wonderful day and deals !!

My last status report had my force leaning towards the Airborne Infantry. It is a subject I love to read, research and model. Then something happened .... as any hobbyist knows .... a turn in the road presented itself. The intelligence book for airborne has a section for Glider Infantry. This presented new challenges, new ideas, new modeling avenues and research. So since the 506th from the 101st Airborne were a major love I decided to model the Glider Infantry that served in the 101st. My army will represent the 327th Glider Infantry, the logo you see in this posting.

I purchased the Rifle Company box set, US paint set and some additional colors to meet the basic US infantry uniform they deployed with for Normandy. I cleaned up the excess mold off the models and am ready to attack the mold lines and finish the cleanup.

Once the mold lines are cleaned up I will start the primer coat. I will attach photos to a future post for each step of the way. Please feel free to leave comments, suggestions or a high five.

I am hoping to get the troops ready for Battle Hymn 09 (Link Info) here in Richmond, VA. Granted I would only have a Rifle Company consisting of HQ, 2 rifle platoons and a weapons platoon. If the money allows I want to get a support platoon or two. I leaning towards a antitank platoon and maybe a Sherman tank platoon. Time will tell.

Well ..... that is all for this posting. Please keep visiting the blog as more updates will follow with pictures of my progress.

Be safe, paint like crazy and keep the dice going.

Joe